Where? Florida’s Daytona Beach International Airport and the adjacent Embry-Riddle campus, as part of SOFIA’s first scientific mission to be flown over the Atlantic Ocean.

Why? The purpose of the SOFIA mission will be to observe Triton – the largest moon of Neptune – as it passes by and conceals or “occults” a star called UCAC4 410-143659. This type of event is best captured by a mobile research facility such as SOFIA, high above the clouds.

(From left to right) – Space Tango’s Director of Business and Communication Operations Kirsten Jenkins, CEO Twyman Clements, and myself at our booth.

It’s been a pretty computer-heavy summer with my internship at Space Tango as we prepare for our next batch of customer payloads to be launched on SpaceX CRS-12. From cleaning up the website to controlling social media, I’ve spent the last two months behind screens completing a lot of background work. Needless to say, I was absolutely enthralled when Space Tango invited me to attend this year’s International Space Station Research & Design (ISS R&D) Conference in Washington, D.C.

The ISS R&D Conference is an opportunity for aerospace industry leaders to network among each other, share ideas, and learn from their personal business ventures in commercial space. Through a series of talks, technical sessions, and a huge networking event, I got to learn first-hand what it’s like to be in the industry. Just so you know, they are just as excited and geeked-out about space as any other college student. It’s truly a shared passion.

Not only did I meet several astronauts, like Embry-Riddle Alum Terry Virts, but I also networked with people at Bigelow Aerospace, Leidos, Made In Space, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation to name a few.

Astronuat Terry Virts and myself – We had a great talk about his experience not only at Worldwide, but at the Daytona campus as well.

Astronaut Kate Rubins shared a detailed story on what it was really like getting to and from the ISS. If you check out the ISS R&D Conference website, you can access a full video on her experience.

Astronaut and Orbital ATK Space Systems Group president Frank Culbertson shared a heart-wrenching story about what it was like to be the only American not on Earth during the 9/11 events. As a military dependent, it was an honor to hear stories from an American hero.

JAXA Astronaut Soichi Noguchi and I not only spoke about JAXA, but I shared a few stories about my time in Japan. Truly an amazing place to visit, but an even better place to live!

It was absolutely exciting to listen to Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow. He shared with the audience why we should remain a leader in space exploration. This was another great talk I urge you to check out at the ISS R&D website!

I even got to meet Dr. Camille Alleyne! We bonded over our Caribbean roots and she even shared some insight on her newest non-profit, The Brightest Stars Foundation. As a woman of color, to say that our conversation was empowering is truly an understatement.

Several students from high schools and universities were also in attendance to share their research. My favorite part of this whole week? A tie between two young women for the Genes in Space Science Contest.

Elizabeth Reizes (14) and Sophia Chen (14) were both named the finalists for the 2017 Genes in Space science contest. Their experiments will be performed aboard the ISS.

The conference was an amazing opportunity and has given me the motivation to get through my last year of my undergraduate degree. It’s a little costly, but this event is well-worth the time for any looking to enter the industry!

We come to college to learn from books, but the biggest lessons we gain are from the people we cross paths with. As a woman of color at a predominantly white institution (and predominantly male), it can be challenging to find confidence in yourself. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet many inspirational women of all ages and even more so, women of color that seek out not only to advance themselves, but the people around them as well.

For this post I will be highlighting one particular woman that has gone above and beyond at Embry-Riddle. Meet Naia!

Naia is a junior in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Applied Mathematics. She is actively involved in National Society of Black Engineers, McNair Scholars, Kappa Mu Epsilon, Bible Study, and Dreams Soar Inc. With all of this on her plate, Naia is also the founder of Embry-Riddle Dancing Eagles. Naia is a Pathways intern at NASA Glenn Research Center working on a High Power Density CubeSat project. Although she began her Pathways internship last September, she is currently on her second cycle of the program.

Astronaut and NASA Glenn Research Center Director, Janet Kavandi (left) and student Naia (right) being sworn in for her first day as a Pathways intern.

I’ve watched Naia from the moment she arrived thrive among her peers as an individual, but even the most successful people have fears about fitting in! She was excited to answer a few questions in hopes of relating to other women of color pursuing, or currently in STEM fields.

“As a woman of color on campus, I feel the biggest challenge I face is Atychiphobia – the fear of being wrong. Stereotypes of women of color in society are often negative.”

As a ‘super-minority,’ women of color often feel intimidated in their academic space. We are subjected to expectations on how we act, dress, and behave. These false expectations can place a lot of pressure on women of color.

“I never want to feel like an undeserved token student or the stereotypical uneducated black female,” Naia added.

Like Naia, we’ve faced this fear of our mistakes overpowering our academic strength. Like Naia, however, I have learned to overcome this. I, myself, was fortunate enough to meet Naia, and many women like her within the past few years, who strives beyond false expectations and imaginary boundaries and women that make their own connections and find motivation to persevere.

Naia’s advice? “Remember to build a network of like-minded, motivated and positive individuals.”

Always remember your goal. How do you define success? Finding people that define success the same way you do will allow you to excel. Women of color have an opportunity to flourish academically and socially alongside women like Naia at Embry-Riddle. The university has an abundance of student organizations that can allow you to find the connections you need to persevere. We may have to work twice as hard for recognition, but we do it together.

We met Ms. Johnson at an annual career fair representing NASA and took it upon ourselves to network! We were then invited for a private tour of Kennedy Space Center. Don’t be afraid to make your own opportunities!(From left to right – Grace Johnson, Education and Youth Projects, Moriah Graham from Aeronautical Science, Danielle Rosales from Communication, and now alumna Cheyenne Nurse with a B.S. in Spaceflight Operations (formerly Commercial Space Operations)

Never forget that we’re more than a statistic, we’re breaking the glass ceiling. We’re pushing the boundaries for another generation. Naia and I encourage women of color to look past fears, concerns and intimidation to attend schools like Riddle to embrace who you are while achieving your dream. There are no limits.

Hello again! I’m so sorry about the long period of radio silence. Things here have been a bit hectic, but I have so many things to talk about so hopefully this might make up for the lack of blog posts. I guess I’ll have to start back way, way back in March right before Spring Break.

Shortly before flying back home to New Jersey to start what would be a moderately eventful Spring Break, I bought myself a DJI Mavic Pro! Eagle eyed readers might remember that I bought a drone my freshmen year, and they would be correct. Ultimately I regret to admit that that drone was a waste of money, but the lessons I’ve learned about drone operation and aerial imagery have long stuck with me.

Once I got home to New Jersey, I spent most of my Spring Break helping my parents out at their nail salon, mostly working as a receptionist and interpreter/translator. Whenever I had some down time, I’d fly my drone at the park by my house. It was really fun to get back into the hobby of aerial photography, but I just wish it wasn’t so cold during break.

I love the snow and it was one of the many reasons why I was super excited to fly back home, but I realized that it takes a lot of time, energy, and planning to fly out in the cold. Not to mention, you’re kinda at the mercy of the weather. Thanks to “Winter Storm Stella,” which turned out to be a bust by the way, the weather was pretty lame since it rained and sleeted a lot. Oh well I guess.

It wasn’t until towards the end of the week that the weather got better so on Friday I spent a day in New York City and spent Saturday packing up my things for my flight back to Orlando on Sunday. And just like that, on that cold Sunday afternoon, I found myself on a train headed back to Newark International Airport so I could start class the next day.

School for the most part has been pretty challenging as always. I think on the week I came back, or the next week, I had three tests scheduled in a row. Definitely not super ideal, but at this point, this has happened about two times so far this semester so I was kinda used to it. I did ok on one of the tests, while I did a lot better on the other two. However, I didn’t have time to contemplate my test scores because the following Sunday I had to shoot a wedding.

I’ve never done wedding photography before and wedding videography is a whole different animal. I will admit I was super nervous because with weddings, you only get one shot so if you blow it, well you’re out of luck. If I had to do it all over again, I’d definitely hire someone else to shoot video with me because one camera man is definitely not enough to cover everything.

Once I recovered from the wedding, I was handed another project: Completely rebuild the Digital Studio website in four-five days. Thankfully, the time-frame was extended for a total time of about two weeks. Now, before starting this huge undertaking, I was pretty good with WordPress and HTML coding. But, the more time I spent working on the website and trying out different design methods, I felt a lot better about my coding background and attitude towards coding.

A lot of people, like myself, complained that ERG115, the class where you first learn how to code in MATLAB, basically made them hate coding. I totally understand where everyone is coming from, but as I started branching out into other programs and coding languages, I rediscovered my love for coding and problem solving. I guess I needed some time off after doing fprintf(‘Hello world.’); so many times.

Somewhere along the way, I was invited by my friend to join him at Sun ‘n’ Fun. For those of you who don’t know, Sun ‘n’ Fun is this huge airshow out in Lakeland, Florida. Many people have compared it to Oshkosh, but I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration, it’s much smaller. Regardless though, I had a lot of fun, but I do wish I’d gone earlier. I went on Sunday with my friend which was the last day of the week-long event, and a majority of the static aircraft, mostly military aircraft, and airshow performers had left. That was ok because I got to see the Blue Angels perform for the first time in my life. After seeing the Thunderbirds perform for three years, this was definitely a welcomed change.

I also got to go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for the first time. I’ve been to Kennedy Space Center and the launch pads, but surprisingly never actually went to the Visitor Complex.

With my sixth, wow has it really been six?, semester now coming to a close, I’m definitely looking forward to going home for the summer for some R&R. I look forward to taking Thermodynamics at Rutgers and flying my drone a lot more since New Jersey’s airspace isn’t as dense as Daytona Beach’s. I look forward to working either with my family or at a supermarket since I was already offered a job starting when I come home. But, most importantly, I look forward to summer and what it has to offer. Four months is a long time and I look forward to sharing everything when I see you all in August.

For now, good luck, and if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

I spent the last three years networking. I met everyone I could. Hell, I even looked into fields that had nothing to do with my interest in space. If I could at least develop a connection with a representative, then I would have a source, an ‘in.’ This year, that ‘in’ paid off.

I’m now an intern at Space Tango, Inc. in Lexington, Kentucky. I work reasonable hours for solid pay. The environment is amazing, and my coworkers are helpful. I’m also getting credit hours for this and we all know that’s a great bonus. It’s science, but it’s casual.

As a communication major at an aeronautical university, everyone wonders “how do those even fit together?” Honestly, I asked myself the same thing before I switched my major. Communication is more than writing a few technical reports or manuals. I personally would like to do public relations for an aerospace company. Ha. How often do you hear of that? Well that’s the thing; you don’t hear about it at all. Being the stubborn woman that I am, I made it an option before someone could tell me otherwise.

I knew nothing about pursuing such a career in science, so I found someone that did. The communication department is flooded with individuals that specialize in writing, speech, behavior, etc. Never forget that they were all somewhere before Riddle. My advisor helped shape my classes for my desired career path and another amazing professor shared her experience in the competitive field of public relations. This was just step 1.

Step 2 was maintaining a focus in science. I picked up a major in space studies to expand my understanding of anything aerospace (satellites, orbital paths, rocket history, propulsion, and more) and to keep me up-to-date on current events. From there, it all happened on its own. I attended open lectures, forums, anything that would provide me an opportunity for one-on-one interaction with professionals in the aerospace industry.

This was really my last “planned” step, step 3. Even if they weren’t always successful, I familiarized myself with other fields. I learned from people I didn’t think I would. This is how I met Michelle Lucas, an Embry-Riddle alumna and CEO of Higher Orbits.I made it my mission to have her remember me. I emailed her, and when I didn’t hear from her in two weeks, I emailed her again. She finally responded and the conversation flowed from there. She invited me to be a member on the Higher Orbits advisory board as she developed her nonprofit “Go For Launch” program, but I wasn’t beating myself up that I didn’t get a high end co-op as yet. I was building my resources.

I continued to casually work towards my goals as a COM major. I maintained relationships with people that I met over the last few years (astronauts, professors, research scientists, NASA employees, people those of us at Embry-Riddle dream of meeting). I expanded my extracurricular experience ranging from Greek Life to the Caribbean Students’ Association. I got a couple of on-campus jobs that dabbled in marketing. I gained leadership experience and focused on my studies. This was all while my network was growing on its own in the background. My casual encounters and skills that I continuously developed were being now discussed by aerospace professionals. I was commended for my hard work, for my creativity,and my goals. Just as I was getting a little impatient, an opportunity finally arose.

Michelle Lucas informed my advisor of an internship opportunity with a micro-gravity research company in search of a communication student to handle their marketing and public relations. I underwent an interview process and shared the portfolio of my work that I built from all my extracurricular activities. A couple of weeks later, I was invited to join the Space Tango team for the spring semester.

Twitter is one of the digital mediums I handle on a day-to-day basis. I update followers on experiments and launches.

My networking paid off. I’m spending my spring semester surrounded by engineers, live feeds from the ISS, and constant news and updates on the SpaceX launches. I’m currently working on media coverage for Space Tango’s payload for CRS-10. I not only control their social media, but I develop media alerts and press releases.

My name is Danielle Rosales. I’m a senior communication major with minors in business administration and space studies. I don’t have an outstanding 3.0 GPA, but I’ve held several jobs on campus in marketing, media relations, and graphic design. I’ve developed a reliable network and have been mentored by Embry-Riddle faculty members.

I’m right where I wanted to be doing something people didn’t even think was possible. The best part of it all? Getting here was all so casual.

We’re back! I haven’t posted an update in the three weeks I’ve been here, so I feel terrible about that! A lot of stuff has happened since May so I’ll do my best to recap everything since.

Thanks to Pokemon GO, I learned that I could bike for three hours straight.

Summer vacation was actually an enjoyable experience for me! I took a chemistry class and lab at my local community college, got to spend a lot of time in New York City, and hung out with my friends. As always, I wish I was able to do more, but with school and scheduling conflicts there was only so much I could do.

Central Park is still my favorite place in New York City.

The chemistry class and lab were very interesting. I haven’t taken chemistry since sophomore year of high school so trying to recall all knowledge on the subject was a fruitless affair. I can say with definite certainty that I did not miss chemistry, and I’m glad that I won’t have to do anything else with it soon. It’s funny though, after taking the class, it seems like all of my courses are becoming a bit reliant on chemistry.

Before school though, my family decided to take a road trip from NJ to FL.

Over the summer I also bought myself an old Polaroid camera, and I love it. The Polaroid SX-70 is definitely no Canon 5D Mark III, but you don’t buy an old camera to use for work: You buy an old camera because it’s fun to use. I love how the camera taught me shutter discipline and forced me to think about the photos I take. If anyone is interested in seeing more Polaroids, follow my Polaroid Instagram @oldformat!

Roosevelt Island is really neat too! This is where you can get nice photos of the UN Building.

Another memorable experience for me this summer was that I got to fly in a small airplane for the second time in my life! My friend invited me to join him on a flight down to Cape May, NJ, which was like a 45 minute flight when compared to the 1 hour and 35 minute drive it would’ve been. We flew on a Piper Arrow and it was very relaxing to fly in. Yes, my friend actually let me fly it for most of the flight and it was such a surreal experience.

*Flies complex airplane* *Proceeds not to take photo of it*

As summer came to close, I said my goodbyes, packed my things, and sat on the AutoTrain for 17 hours for my trip back to Daytona Beach to start the semester. Going into this semester, I had a “Go get ’em” attitude about it, and I think that’s really important to have. You need to be motivated to tackle a semester or else you’ll start to slowly get bogged down with school work and commitments.

As far as commitments go, I’m now the Photo Editor for The Avion Newspaper, I’m still a tutor for the Digital Studio, and I currently have five classes. Even with all of these things taking up a majority of my time, I still somehow manage to find time to spend with friends.

For instance, a week or two ago I went to Disney World for the first time. Yes, shocker right? I spent like ten hours at Epcot and three hours at Magic Kingdom. It was amazing, and it was even more amazing since I got in for free! Though, I probably spent an admissions worth of money on pins.

Epcot is the best park.

Last week, I got to see a rocket launch and it felt nice to be back at Riddle doing what I loved: Photography. With all of this stuff happening within the first three weeks of the semester, I can’t wait to see what Fall 2016 has in store for me.

Hello hello everybody! I know I am writing a tad bit late about the fifth week, but as they say, better late than never! Last week was crazy! Between exams, meetings, and well, more meetings, it felt like the week never ended. I had a lot of meetings with my officers for Society 4 S.P.A.C.E trying to start up the organization, and trying to get the officers more comfortable with their roles. The meeting on Wednesday went extremely well! The officers got a chance to introduce themselves and talk about their roles, as well as, a few announcements regarding fundraisers, launches, events, and more. Space News with Skye went really well too! I spoke about the James Webb Telescope and how it is helping to find the origin of galaxies and stars. Also, how it is not only looking at our solar system, but others in search of life. The James Webb telescope is scheduled to launch October 2018. Another thing I spoke about was the State of NASA. It aired on February 9, 2016. Charlie Bolen, former astronaut and now NASA Administrator, spoke about NASA’s budget for the upcoming years. In the speech he said that we are requesting a little over 19 billion dollars for the 2017 Fiscal Year and by 2021 they expect to be requesting over 21 billion. More money for space flight!

This was not even the half of it! A day or so before the Society 4 S.P.A.C.E. meeting, I decided to get into the holiday spirit (Valentine’s Day). I went out and bought little gift bags and filled them with glow-in-the-dark space cards, Hershey kisses, and a glow stick to give to the members. They really enjoyed the gesture. After that, I gave my officers little goodie bags for my appreciation of having them on board as well as their support. At the end of the week, it finally was over and I was really excited for Valentine’s Day. On Valentine’s Day, Josh (my boyfriend), Tank (our dog), and I decided to go up to Kissimmee and stay the night. We left at about 11:00a for Kissimmee and decided to go hiking. We had so much fun! We probably were hiking for a couple of hours. While on the route, we happened to see two log cabins, one built in 1920 and the other one built in 1818. It was really awesome seeing something built that long ago. It was a nice day out as well so we went hiking through the woods. What really amazed the both of is was the fact that this hiking park was right in the middle of the city! A city! And it was one of the most amazing hiking spots I have been to. I highly recommend it if you’re a hiker!

I am easy to please, so instead of a fancy dinner, we found a restaurant that gave us 15% off just for being guests at the hotel. It was called Wildside. Oh my gosh! I ordered a smoke stack burger. It was a burger with BBQ pulled pork, and BBQ sauce. It was one of the best burgers I have had! Again, if you go to Kissimmee, you have to go there! We also got chips and salsa and an appetizer but since our food came out first they took the chips and salsa off the check, plus our 15% off so you can say it was a good dinner!

If you get the chance I highly recommend going to Kissimmee. There is a lot to do and we were only there for a night.

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Spring 2016 semester! Sorry it has taken me a while to write a blog, I have been super sick for the past week, but I am getting better. This semester is exciting for me. I am taking five classes: Speech, Physics, Calculus, Humanities and Commercial Space Ops Seminar. On Monday’s and Friday’s I am 8:00a to 12:00p, which is really awesome because it gives me a chance to go home and get homework done and more time to relax at night. On Tuesday’s I have once class from 9:45a to 11:00a and Wednesday’s 8:00a – 12:00p and 1:00p – 2:00p. Luckily, I have Thursday’s off so I really am enjoying this semester. In particular, I really am enjoying my Humanities class. It is HU145 for McKee. The theme is music, which is really awesome considering that it’s not literature or hard core history. We get to read a couple books on music and actually listen to old time music.

On the other hand, I am currently a Mechanical Engineering and Human Factors Psychology major…I am most likely going to be switching my HF major to Commercial Space Operations. That is why I am taking the CSO 101 seminar class to see what it is all about. I am taking it with Lance Erickson, the man who wrote the program. He is retiring after this semester so I lucked out with that. I really am enjoying the class. There are a lot of interesting jobs that really interest me. Plus, it is about space and space is my life.

Speaking about space, I was recently named a NASA Solar System Ambassador (SSA) for 2016. I get to do four giant speeches a year! It is totally awesome. I get my own name badge and everything! Once I know more information on it I will be sure to write about it.

As for the new semester, a lot awaits. New classes, new starts, new teachers, and new chances. Most importantly there are new opportunities. Personally for me, I am excited for the new opportunities: NASA SSA, classes, and possible connections. There is an endless number of things that can happen in someone’s life and a new year and new semester sets a perfect tone for that.

Hello hello everyone! It is finally November! Sorry I have not written anything in a while. It has been crazy busy on my side! School has been coming along. We are almost done with the semester. We have a little bit less than a month left. This is when all your final projects and final assignments are due. I finally figured out what my MATLAB final project is going to be, a NASA database! I got the idea from a friend, Julia. She knows how much I like NASA so one day we were sitting in class and she happened to mention the idea. I sat down and did some planning with my professor and he loved the idea. I must have been in his office for about 2 and a half hours just planning. He gave me some really good ideas and we brainstormed the project. I am really happy with what we came up with so now I just have to execute it and I have a month to do it!

For my CATIA project it is moving along! We are going to measure and model 10 parts tomorrow since my caliper that I ordered finally came in! I am really excited to get working on that because like I said before, I am doing a space shuttle pullback toy. Yes, NASA again!

November is going to be full of schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork. But there is still a break for Veterans Day coming up on Wednesday and Thanksgiving Break later on in the month. I will also be going to Kennedy Space Center later in the month. It has been too long! I miss my second home!

I almost forgot! Besides the craziness of school, during one of the Society 4 S.P.A.C.E. meetings, we had a guest speaker, Ronald Caswell, who worked on the ISS and Shuttle. He spoke for about an hour and a half about the Colombia and Challenger disaster. Let me tell you, being a space nerd myself, I knew a lot of information about the two disasters but I learned a whole lot more! It was a pleasure hearing him speak about his work. I loved how passionate he was. It was like nothing was stopping him from doing what he loved. It was truly a great experience to hear him talk.

Life has been flying by really fast lately. Final projects and last semester as a freshman. I have even started looking for a place for next semester. Time has flown by since the Fall Semester started. I cannot believe it is almost over. With all the craziness of school, I have taken time to relax and have fun. I have hung out with some friends and had a Netflix day where I sat and watched Netflix all day. Yes, it was a nice break from all the school craziness and stress. With a little less than one month left, it is time for the big push. One more month and the craziness of fall is all over!

Hold on Riddle kids! We are almost at the end! Have a great Monday everyone!

Hello, hello! Things have been crazy the past few days and it’s only going to get crazier from here on out.

10/10 will do again. Thank you Newman!

This Embraer E-175 was only 15 days old when I took this picture last week.

The cockpit is very stylish and somewhat roomy!

For the last two weeks, a friend of mine, who happens to be a flight instructor for Riddle, had been coaching me in the flight simulators that we have here on campus. He put me through engine failures, landing patterns, IFR approaches, and stalls. As someone who really enjoys flying but cannot afford to do so in reality, this is a great substitute, and I really do appreciate him doing that for me. Plus, having a flight instructor guide you through everything makes flying the simulators a lot more fun and meaningful.

I didn’t understand Rachel Week’s costume. She told me who she was dressed as and now I feel stupid.

This guy’s costume was the best I don’t care what everyone else said.

This Wednesday, I covered Tri Sigma’s 8th annual fashion show which was very interesting. Because I’ve never covered the fashion show before, I was technically going in blind when I accepted the task. At the end of the day though, I was able to capture some memories that will last a lifetime for everyone involved, and I got practice in shooting fashion shows: a win-win if you ask me.

Actually this guy was the funniest.

ERMERGERD ITS A ROCKET. ERMERGERD.

Probably my biggest highlight so far was that I was cleared by the Air Force to cover ULA’s (United Launch Alliance) IIF-11 launch that was supposed to happen today (Friday). Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed until Saturday because of a leak in the water suppression system. It’s also because of the scrub that I won’t be able to cover the Stewart Airshow that’s happening this weekend as well.

“Oh so artsy b&w image.”

Regardless, I had a blast on Thursday going out and setting up remote cameras out on the launch pad. I got to meet some really nice people and saw some familiar faces from the last time I was at Cape Canaveral which was back in April for SpaceX’s CRS-6 launch. I was also amazed at how close ULA let us media credentialed individuals get to the rocket. I was definitely a lot closer to the Atlas V than I was to the Falcon 9.

Lens flairs so unnecessary they call me JJ Abrams.

With this semester coming to a close in just 4-5 weeks, (I know right?) I find it hard to believe that we’re now at this point in the semester. Actually, let’s just forget that the end is near and look towards my next update. Sounds like a good plan. Cheers!